I just read two fantastic Arsenal books. Arsene Wenger: The Biography by Xavier Rivoire and Rebels for the Cause: The Alternative History of Arsenal Football Club by Jon Spurling.

This quote is from my new hero. Sir Henry Norris.

"Arsenal Football Club is open to receive applications for the position of Team Manager. He must be experienced and possess the highest qualifications for the post, both as to the ability and personal character. gentlemen whose sole ability to build up a good side depends on the payment of heavy and exorbitant transfer fees need not apply." - Sir Henry Norris, Athletic News on 11th May 1925. Awesome.

What he did to Spurs to worsen our rivalry -which he started by bribing the FA to allow us to move to Islington- is legendary.

"At the end of the war it was decided to increase the First Division from 20 to 22 clubs. One solution to the problem was to allow the relegated clubs in the 1914-15 season, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, to remain in the First Division. However, Henry Norris disputed this idea. He argued that a great deal of match-fixing had gone on in the 1914-15 season and that league positions should be disregarded. The reason for this was that Arsenal had finished in 5th place in the Second Division in the 1914-15 season and therefore had no grounds for being elected to the First Division.

It was decided to give Chelsea one of the vacant places in the First Division. However, Norris persuaded the league chairman to vote on the other club to join them. Arsenal won the ballot with 18 votes. Spurs only got 8 whereas Barnsley, who finished 3rd in the Second Division in the 1914-15 season, received 5 votes. Many people were of the opinion that Norris had bribed his fellow chairmen in order to win the election. "

He live right by me best mate, a quality fella, a "Jack Gooner" (not too many of us). Owns me best friends local and loves a pint. I don't think he'll last another week from the reports that are coming out and he's being treated at the same place where that same best mate's dad died not so long back (oesophagus cancer). I'm absolutely gutted.

City striker attacks supporters' 'unfair' abuse and claims manager set up transfer behind his back

By Ian Herbert in JohannesburgFriday, 24 July 2009The Independent Close

Arsene Wenger's conduct towards Adebayor has puzzled the new Manchester City striker

The latest of Manchester City's new galactico signings, Emmanuel Adebayor, last night hit out at the Arsenal fans whom he claimed drove him away from the Emirates Stadium and declared he had been sold against his wishes to raise badly needed money for the club.

Adebayor, who revealed he had returned from holiday two weeks ago to be confronted with the news that the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, had agreed to sell him to City, said he had done all he could to win over supporters poisoned against him by bids for him from Real Madrid, Barcelona or Milan which he was powerless to prevent last summer.

"It's a strange thing in football," said Adebayor, City's £25m signing and fourth major purchase of this summer. "When a player plays well everybody loves him. I'd just scored 30 goals in [the 2007-08] season, and it wasn't my fault Milan or Barcelona or Real Madrid want to sign me. The fans never understood that; they never understood why [those clubs] wanted to buy me. I couldn't understand why they were after me. I'd done everything, made a speech, played for three years, done my best. The way the fans behaved towards me was not nice at all."Related articles

At a shareholders' forum in May, Wenger said Adebayor was being "slaughtered" by fans who booed him during games and though there seemed little doubt last summer that the 25-year-old striker was agitating for a move, his indignation is accentuated by the fact that former Arsenal team-mate Cesc Fabregas is, as he sees it, never subjected to supporters' criticism despite frequent approaches from other clubs. "Every single summer and December, Barcelona try to buy Cesc but the fans never turned on him. But that's life. It's behind me," Adebayor said.

The indignation he clearly feels is probably not what manager Mark Hughes is hoping for in one of his new strikers and provides more evidence that City cannot simply wave a chequebook and expect players to want to sign. But the Togolese, radiating as much positive energy about his new task as he often does in interviews, is theirs in any case and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that he will put everything into what he agreed, last night, is his biggest challenge yet.

Adebayor may appear in some of City's match against either Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates here tomorrow, especially as Carlos Tevez will not play and is expected to miss training for a week because of a heel injury. He offered an insight into why he needed several days to turn City's offer round in his mind and harboured such uncertainties about it. Adebayor had no notion of the deal until returning from holiday on 12 July to be told by his agent Stephane Courbis that Wenger wanted to talk.

"I met him [Wenger] in his dressing room," Adebayor said. "He told me: 'You can leave'. I said: 'Why do you want me to leave now? Why do you want to sell me?' At the end of the day I find out the club – Arsenal – need money and I'm the target. It was a tough decision. But today I've left Arsenal and everything I've done there is behind me." Of Wenger's decision to use him to raise cash, he said ruefully: "They pushed the finger on me. Well, I'm very happy they've got their money and I hope they spend it well – and the club can go forward."

Wenger's conduct towards him – after a three-year relationship in north London in which the Frenchman has "put me where I am today" as Adebayor sees it – has puzzled him. Though it is likely last summer that Adebayor favoured a move to Milan, he insisted Wenger could not declare as much. "He can never ever stand up on TV or anywhere and say that last summer I told him I would be leaving. All it ever told him was I loved the club and wanted to stay."

On a day when two more strikers left Eastlands – young Welshman Ched Evans is expected to be unveiled as a Sheffield United player after a £3m move with a possible 20per cent sell-on and Felipe Caicedo's season-long loan to Sporting Lisbon has gone through – Adebayor also became the latest individual to issue a plea to John Terry to join the City revolution.

"He is one of the best in the world," he said. "If City want to be a big club they need big names and big players like John Terry. We all know how good he is. You can't be captain of an international team just like that. He has a great character and that's why [we] want to buy him. If we get someone like him we can be sure of our defence."

The perfect comment:

"Adebayour is ridiculous. Fans didnt boo because he was linked with other clubs, half the players in the team are continuously link with teams, but its another thing when the players say they want to say only to 5 minutes later tell Italian journalists how much they admire Milan and want to join... or the interview he did on Tongolese radio in which he said he wanted to leave.... or the fact he demanded an extortionate pay rise, only to spend the season putting minimal effort in.

He never turned up this season, and that, added to his outragous contract demands and continuous flirtations to other clubs are why we booed... he encapsulates everything bad about modern day footballers." - meikles86.

Man City fans, who would have been preoccupied with watching their team pull themselves out of the relegations crap last season, not Adebayors continuing lethargy would have failed to note his poor attitude.

New signing Emmanuel Adebayor failed to inspire Manchester City as the former Arsenal forward's new side fell to defeat against Kaizer Chiefs in Pretoria.

More than 30,000 fans turned up at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium to watch the game, but were let down by a below-par City, who ended their tour to South Africa on a low – they lost two and won one match in the Vodacom Challenge tournament.

In the end it was Jeffrey Ntuka's effort minutes before half-time that proved the difference between the two sides.

Adebayor, one of City's biggest summer signings, was handed a first start by Mark Hughes, while another new recruit Gareth Barry also played alongside the likes of Shay Given, Nigel de Jong, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Craig Bellamy.

After a quiet start Martin Petrov and Adebayor both were on the wrong ends of clattering challenges by Chiefs players during the opening 14 minutes, but survived to play on.

But City youngster Javan Vidal, a product of the club's academy, was not so fortunate and was forced off the field after 20 minutes following a collision with Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune – Tal Ben-Haim coming on in his place.

Barry had the first real chance for his side after another good cross from the left touchline by the lively Petrov, but his 18-yard shot just short of the half-hour mark was straight at the Chiefs goalkeeper.

The visitors then made another change shortly before the break replacing Richard Dunne with Pablo Zabaleta as the City captain aggravated a knee injury.

In front of goal, all the signs continued to look encouraging with Petrov, Adebayor and Bellamy linking up nicely, until the final ball, which let Hughes' side down.

But it was the visiting goalkeeper Given that was forced to make the first real save, which was in the 41st minute when Nkosinathi Nhleko's shot caused the Republic of Ireland international to dive low to his left and tip the ball wide.

The resulting George Lebese corner caused panic in the penalty area and Ntuka drove the ball home from close-range to hand his side the half-time lead, albeit with a suspicion of handball in his control.

City kept the same players on after the restart with Adebayor's timely run 10 minutes in almost paying dividends, but, after seeing his initial cross-goal pass come back into his path, the Togo striker blazed over when he should have hit the target.

Three minutes later, Robinho was thrown on for Petrov, but he too failed to inspire the Eastlands club with even half chances proving few and far between.

With 25 minutes to play, a head injury brought Nedum Onuoha's game to an end – Vladimir Weiss coming on in his place.

And the Slovak winger almost helped his side snatch a late goal when his mazy run down the right saw him feed the ball to Robinho, who somehow dragged his shot wide as the game ended disappointingly for the visitors.

"I love these stats and can’t help repeating them. Adebayor scored 10 league goals from 78 chances last season. Basically 1 out of 8. He was also caught offside more than any other player in europe. 25 million. Thank you very much ." - Goldflop Rakeback

I know he missed a lot of sitter for us and his finishing was only shadowed by that game where Bendnter had a billion chances and failed to score (ironically, Bendnter also worker very hard in that match and created more chances than he spurned, Ade rarely created).

Let me tell you about chances.I was at the Gold Cup final today. 5-0 to Mexico all scored in 45 minutes. The first half was dire then the second half never stopped hurting. Vela and Dos Santos were incredible. Oh yeah, they both scored.

Here's an article on both.The atmosphere was great. It felt like 70,000 out of the 80,000 were Mexican supporters. It was all green and white. They even laid out a real pitch!I stayed until the trophy presentation and left the second after. Great day all around.

Toure was awful last year, mainly due to his refusal to play with Gallas. Three season's ago he was my favourite Arsenal player. I hope he goes before he dilutes his legacy further.

Man City are crazy, I don't think Hughes knows what he's buying. It looks like he's getting footballer advice from Mark Lawrenson.

On a side note, platini has got one his toughest measure 2/3 through. Any team now playing over a certain percentage of their means (expenditure over and above a certain threshold compared to their turnover) will be inelligble for UEFA competitions. So far the guidelines only exclude three teams and I think you can guess who they are. Since this is a competition specific ruling, not a proper league matter, there is no European legislation an offending team can use to hide behind ((like how Arsenal managed to stave off the 6 home grown players suggestion by Platini and Blatter). I'd love to see the offending teams disqualified on the grounds above.

I still love what Henry Norris said about football management in his famous advert for an Arsenal manager in the 1920's.

Sir Henry Norris - Toasty's new hero wrote:

Arsenal Football Club is open to receive applications for the position of Team Manager. He must be experienced and possess the highest qualifications for the post, both as to the ability and personal character. Gentlemen whose sole ability to build up a good side depends on the payment of heavy and exorbitant transfer fees need not apply.

I rate Djorou and Song very highly as centre backs. Senderos is still with us, he lacks the quality to be first team, though when he came in a while back for Campbell (after his head went) he did well. I can only ever recall senderos ever struggling against Drogba, so perhaps everyone including myself is treating him harshly. We got Vermaelen and apparently Wenger wants Hangeland - but I'd go for Sakho and felt we should have bought Sakho two years ago when he would have cost pennies. Sakho will be world class within a season or two at a top level club. also, if City want Torue, I'd take Richards. he was off the boil last year, but he's an Arsenal fan and perhaps that will spark his renaissance which is sure to come sooner rather than later as he's so young. I like Bassong, but I feel that a rose growing amongst weeds always looks more appealing.

Senderos is a good first team centre back for any team in the premiership outside the top 4. Besides his games against Chelsea, no one will be able to point out an exact occasion where Senderos was found wanting.

I hope he does well. I like Senderos but he wasn't good enough to be a first team option at the Arsenal.

On a side note, I am quite pleased that Eboue agreed to extend his Arsenal contract to 2013. Great news for the club.

Chamakh, although a prospect and on par with Huntlear (Huntlear is playing close to his full potential with much more to come from Chamakh) I'm pleased to see us telling Bordeaux to fuck off and looking to bring in Kalou.

I don't necessarily agree with the opinion about Wenger's defensive signings. Sure we've had Cygan and Stepanovs, but we've also had Campbell, Gallas, Toure and he extended the playing careers of both Tony Adams and Keown who when Wenger took over felt they were in their last seasons.

People often remark that Arsenal miss the old back four. The old back four didn;'t play a season unbeaten. The old back four didn't extend that run to 49 games unbeaten (The old back four didn't have a sweeper playing behind them in Lehman who often spared their blushes, sometimes at the expense of his reputation). It needs to be remembered that the invincibles defensive line was created by Wenger. Lauren, Toure, Campbell and Ashley Cole.

Winning the championship? Why not. As long as doing so doesn;t harm the club. Winning the premiership shgouldn't be our primary focus. We should stay the course and contibnue on our current path and chip away at the stadium debt to ensure we can play within our means. Once that debt is resolved (and the sooner the better) Arsenal can look to a period of dominance. The only obstacle may be that Wenger may not be at the club then, which is another reason why the debt should be attacked sooner rather than later, so if no new big signing come for the benefit of the long term future and success of the club, so be it.

I view all fans baying for new signings whatever the cost as well as the press who are also saying Arsenal must win something this year as counter to the future of my club and I view them as serious enemies of mine. I take their comments personally and wish them all harm. I constantly hear the same thing over and over "we should be competing with Manu". This echoes the sentiments which led to NUFC's ruin "We should be top of the league, we should be in Europe" and they spoent and they spent with no sound foundation and the collossus fell into the tyne.